The Hour Glass
by xTrateltx
Summary: While everything in life is back to normal for Neku and friends, where's Joshua? Our heroes find themselves in an hour glass. How will they escape...? No specific pairings, possible NekuXJoshua later on. T for some swearing. Edited to make more sense now.
1. Falling Into Sand and Demise

Ohai everyone……… Second fanfic. Hope you guys like it….. Oh yea, and…

**I AM WRITING A CHAPTER 2 FOR: FINAL FUSION, it's just paused,** so stop bugging me with messages. *stare* this was inspired by….. AN HOUR GLASS. (YES, I'm pathetic. D: )I'm pretty sure Neku and friends were 14 in the game, but isn't Ryhme 13 or something? …Meh. Correct me in a review if I'm wrong. I'm also not 100% sure if Neku's headphones are from CAT, so please correct me. :) A little bit of spoilers for Week 3 and after-game. Microsoft Word keeps insisting Neku is "Neck" ….. o.o"

Neku is a little OOC, but not really..... I'd say Rhyme is more ._." Is Shiki really that... scared? O__O

**I do not own anything. Square Enix ftw~ **

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Neku was back at the old CAT mural with his friends. Some of the paint had been washed off, and battered by the weather. Even after the Reapers Game, Shiki, Rhyme and Beat were still great friends with Neku. Not much changed, except for the obvious fact Shiki was back in her original body and that Neku had ditched his headphones by Hachiko. (He really regretted that; they were from CAT. Very popular brand = Very popular merchandise = Very high prices. )

Shiki still had Mr. Mew with her, but his ebony black fur had faded to a dull black. She usually wore different clothing, but she wore what she had worn when she met Neku for the first time by Hachiko, her green long sleeve, white skirt and black leggings. Neku had insisted, which she had no idea **why**. Maybe it was because today was exactly one month after the game……..

Just like the old times, Neku put his left hand onto the cool concrete mural. Shiki smiled, and leaned against it, while Rhyme was talking to Beat about the artwork. "It's still kinda amazing that is CAT…. The art is amazing……." Beat seemed to nod in agreement.

Suddenly without warning, Beat bolted straight up, then hollered "Yo, Phones! Look ou-"

Neku barely had one second to turn, almost half-expecting to see Joshua come charging, gun in hand. To his relief, it was only a young child, who was speeding by on a bike. The child skidded a bit to avoid Neku, then vanished down the stone steps and left the Udagwa Back Street in a matter of seconds. "Ahh….. Neku….! You have to be more careful around here……." Shiki whispered, and then whipped around just to check for more incoming threats. Neku, who by now was only slightly aware of the bike incident, merely said "….Huh?"

Shiki fixed her glasses (they were slipping down her nose) and sighed. "Why are you slacking off so much lately? Today, I saw you almost nod off in Math……" Neku flinched. Math only reminded him of Pi-Face, a memory he was eager to forget. "I mean…. Aghh… **That** subject." Shiki corrected herself when Neku gave her the change-the-subject-or-I'll-punch-you look. Neku put his hand back on the mural, and sighed contently. Everything in his world right now seemed fine. Joshua hadn't appeared since the game, perhaps he would never appear again.

Maybe it was just him, or the month he spent in the Reaper's Game. He wondered when he went by Scramble Crossing, if there were Players, running through him. Sometimes he even tried to frighten them, by thinking for the entire day: **I know you're there, so stop trying to read my thoughts. ** Imprinting also explained why sometimes he went walking by Wild Kat, and a random word would pop into his head, like "Ramen!" or "Blackout…" …. Neku found it extremely annoying, but sometimes they helped, like when things like "Gym today!" and "CDs!" popped in.

Even now, sometimes he half expected to walk into a wall when going from Scramble Crossing to the 104 building. He still remembered his first few encounters with the walls. And boy, did they hurt. Especially on the nose. He had bruises after the Game for that reason.

"Hey, Phones…….!" A yell shook him back to reality. Rhyme was shaking him gently, while Beat looked like he was about to smash his skateboard onto his head. "Yeah?""BWAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! I wasn't going to hit Phones yo! T-there was a… B-.. Bug yo…. Yeah, a bug on Phones…." Shiki was restraining Beat from hitting Neku by holding up Mr. Mew. Neku smiled from the memory. Mr. Mew was now just an inanimate object, but he was very sure why Beat still had a fear of the pig…. Cat.

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"_Hey, Phones… She 'aint responding……"_

"_Beat….. Don't get any closer to Shi-"_

"_BWAHHH she doesn't recognize us at all, yo!"_

"_Maybe……. If we break that Red Skull pin……"_

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Neku himself shuddered. Shiki was a formidable opponent. They had fought a possessed version of her, and Beat got scratched/beaten up quite badly.

No warning came when he felt everything going slightly black… His feet were lifted lightly from below him, but his head did not hit the pavement. Instead, he fell in a head-first dive into a bottomless black pit…. Someone screaming his name…..Perhaps Shiki….. That was all he remembered before his consciousness just faded away.

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He woke up with a headache, and everything was blurry. Beneath him was something soft…… Sand? At first he thought was on a beach, but there was no water nearby, nor the screeching and squabbling of the seagulls. He sat up as quickly as he could. It seemed more like a desert than beach…… He stumbled a little from the sand while he walked in one direction. BANG! "Ow ow ow ow……" He had walked into something, had ended up on his back, and was rubbing his once again, sore nose. Only a wall could do this. Neku looked around, and then jumped in surprise. Shiki was half buried under sand, a few meters away.

He ran over as quickly as he could on the slippery grounds, and began brushing sand off of her. Out of nowhere, sand began to rain onto his hair, making him grumble in annoyance and look up. His heart nearly stopped beating in shock and horror. There seemed to be a hole in the sky….. And it was raining sand. Neku tried his best to keep breathing, while getting Shiki out of the sand.

She awoke several minutes later, after Neku had carried her to a safe corner, a nice distance from the falling substance. Neku was leaning warily against the invisible wall that had surrounded them. "Hey, Neku…." "Hm?" "Weren't you…. Sinking into the ground….." Neku shot up from his position, and gave her a look that meant are-you-crazy-or-something? look. "I'm not sure…" "And look, Neku…" She pointed one hand to the hole in the "sky". Shiki's voice was wavering a little. "We m-might be…." She stuttered out and began shaking in fear. "I-in a-a…… H-ho-ou-…." She took a deep, calming breath. It didn't help. "Hou-our… Glass…" She finally managed to say.

"S-see……. A pile of s-..Sand…." Neku watched where her hand was pointing. She was right; there was a small pile of sand collecting where the hole in the sky kept pouring the unwanted substance in. "Are you serious???" Neku ran a hand over the "wall" behind him. Yep, it curved up, and it was transparent. Definitely glass.

Neku had to squint to get a better view of what was outside. It was dim, but he could make out three structures looming out from the ground. The middle one was the tallest, while the other two beside it seemed to bend away, almost is fear. His eyes grew wide as he realized where he was. _"The Room Of Reckoning……"_ The breath was caught in his throat. The most dreaded place, where Joshua had shot him….

He turned to Shiki, shaking slightly. Her eyes told him everything he needed to know.

"_We're going to die here, Neku….."_

He slumped to the floor, and tried to stop shaking. He closed his eyes and tried to think of what he had not yet accomplished in life.

_All of my CDs…… Beat, Ryhme…. Mr.H…… Ahh….. I wonder if I'll see any of them again. I wonder if I'll die in sand. I wonder if I'll see my parents ever again…._

_**I wonder who did this to us…….. **_

Neku looked at Shiki. She too, was remembering things.

_At least I'll have my first friend with me….._

Neku mentally slapped himself. "Selfish…. Stupid….. Argg….."

He carefully picked his way through the sand and stood next to Shiki. She was gripping Mr. Mew, like it was a candy to a one-year old. "What the hell???" Neku screamed, and punched the glass with a clenched fist. It hurt, but his rage masked that. "Who the hell would do this???" He threw another pointless punch at the glass.

"_Neku dear, you know I don't want to see my **precious** Proxy hurt, right?" _The voice came from behind him. The word "precious" was spoken with malice, hate, anger.... Something that did not fit the person who said those words. Not at all.

All instincts made him realize whom this voice belonged to.

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Yep, that's it. THIS IS NOT A ONESHOT. :3 ...PWAHAHAHAHAHAHAhA!

*runs off with towel as a cape, making airplane sounds* WOOOOOOSHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Shiki: Err........ Tratelt is having a little bit of a sugar day, please don't mind if she doesn't update for a while! "¬_¬ BTW Joshua may be evil in this fanfic. :P


	2. Erasure and Broken Glass

Whoa! I'm actually updating! Holy crap! I'm on a roll! O___O; Second update today?

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Last chapter recap:

"_Neku dear, you know I don't want to see my __**precious**__ Proxy hurt, right?" __The voice came from behind him. The word "precious" was spoken with malice, hate, anger.... Something that did not fit the person who said those words. Not at all._

_All instincts made him realize whom this voice belonged to_.

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**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters. All characters and their main story line belong to Square Enix ©.

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"Long time no see, Neku." Neku turned, shaking slightly. Joshua hadn't changed one bit, except for the fact his eyes……. His eyes were now intimidating, blood red….

Full of hate. Hate that was directed towards the pair.

"J-joshua….. Yeah, long time…." He swallowed nervously. "Long time no see, huh." Silent, the Composer raised his right hand in an open palm, and clenched it together slowly. Neku had seen that pose somewhere before….

_Please… Don't kill me…_

Neku looked back at Shiki. She was now dangling slightly in the air, like what Neku had done to her on the second day in the Reaper's Game. Except now, Neku had changed. He was a different person now. At first, he thought he was somehow accidentally using a pin, but he looked at Joshua and it all became clear.

_**Joshua was going to kill Shiki.**_

"W-what?" Shiki choked out, as she began to panic. "N-Neku…" "It's okay. Try not to talk; I'll rip off Joshua's arm if that's what it takes to save you..." Neku whispered under his breath, and charged at Joshua. "Let Shiki go, you bastard!" There was a flash of static behind him as Neku raised a fist that connected with Joshua's jaw.

Although the Composer was thrown into the air and landed on the sand a few meters away, the burst of static had been Shiki.

**Erased.**

The music-lover panted, unable to make sense of the emotions that overwhelmed him. Fumbling through the sand once more, he stumbled over to the place where Shiki once stood. Nothing was left. Absolutely nothing. Gazing up at the top of the hour glass, he hoped to find one reason why he wouldn't attack and rip up Joshua.

From the top of the hourglass where the sand leaked down from, he saw something drop down. It was a brilliant, golden yellow _something_. Ignoring Joshua, he ran past him and sifted through the sand where the item had fallen. It was actually a pendant. **Rhyme's pendant**, to be precise.

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"Rhyme! Rhyme, where'd you go…. Rhyme!!" Beat hastily but carefully took a giant leap to where he had last seen Rhyme. "Beat…" Rhyme shouted, "Over here! My arm…. It's stuck…..." Hearing his sister's distress, he hurried over, before the gaping hole in the middle of the floor swallowed them up. With a hard pull, Beat got Rhyme out of the sand and hoisted her safely onto his shoulders, where she hung on for dear life. "My board, it's gone, yo! What should we do, Rhyme? That hole 'aint stopping any time soon." What he said was correct. The flow of the sand pulled the two towards it.

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Pocketing the pendant, Neku turned back to Joshua. His eyes still hadn't changed, still set with murder and hatred. He pulled out his orange-coloured phone, and levitated. Neku knew that move all too well.

He ran. Ran as fast and as far as he could. Rays of neon blue and white flashed down behind him, chasing his very steps. If he fell now, it'd all be over.

_Joshua… Have you gone insane?_

After a few minutes of chasing, Neku collapsed in the sand. Never had he though running in sand would be this hard. Joshua approached and loomed over him. Pushing himself to sit up, he panted, and tried to look Joshua in the eye. Still blood red. "Joshua…." Neku wondered if he negotiated, perhaps Joshua would let him out. "C-can you get me out of this hour glass?"

For a moment, Joshua's eyes faded back to their normal, purple state. "Actually, dear, I was trapped in here too. Mind if we make a pact to get out? Hehehe..." Neku was shocked beyond speech. Had he just erased Shiki so he could make a pact to get out? "I-I accept..." Neku said softly, and the lights went off, bonding the two. As much as it disgusted him, Joshua would have to help him get out.

The moment ended, and Joshua's eyes faded back to their crimson color. He ran straight towards the nearest glass wall. Never in Neku's life had he imagined Joshua to run that fast. Perhaps he was driven by something, something completely **not **Joshua. Neku followed, forced by the distance between the pact.

Neku had to use Pyrokinesis to heat up the glass to a glowing red, while Joshua fired a beam at it with Neku who used a Shockwave pin to slash at it, causing the glass to crack. It shattered, showering Neku (who was right next to the glass) in broken bits of glass. A few cuts here and there didn't matter. Jumping out from the hourglass, he didn't look back. He just ran out of the Room of Reckoning straight to Dogenzaka.

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By the time the proxy got there, he was exhausted beyond words. He ran towards A-East, knowing the concert stage would be Noise-free and unoccupied. It was a Sunday, after all. 777 never had concerts on Sunday.

Collapsing in the far north-east corner of the empty and pitch-black stage, he leaned against the metal railings and fell unconscious.

He couldn't tell what was darker, the stage or his sight.

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And that's it!

Shiki: Holy shit! I died? FUFGUIEFIUWANSLNDK YOU BACKSTABBER JOSHUA

xTra-chanx: Yep. You can go beat up Joshua for it later.

Shiki: RAWR!

xTra-chanx: *Joshua imitation* Neku dear, how's the sleeping gas?

Neku: Go away.

xTra-chanx: *headdesk* I should never do Joshua. NEVER.

Anyway, hope you guys like this chapter. R&R and tell people too! :D


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